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Publishers Expect Spike in Reader Interest in Books on the Kennedys

By Motoko Rich August 26, 2009 4:34 pmAugust 26, 2009 4:34 pm

Win McNamee/Getty ImagesSen. Edward M. Kennedy

The Kennedy family has been a subject of fascination for book buyers for nearly half a century, and the publishing industry fully expects the death of Edward M. Kennedy to bolster further strong interest in books both about the senator and his family.

Twelve, an imprint of Grand Central Publishing, currently has the most riding on the legacy with the forthcoming publication of “True Compass,” Senator Kennedy’s memoir. The company, which reportedly paid $8 million for worldwide rights to the autobiography, had already moved up publication of the book to Sept. 14, from Oct. 6, and has announced an initial print run of 1.5 million hardcover copies.

In a news release rushed out Wednesday morning, Jonathan Karp, publisher of Twelve, said that Senator Kennedy had “worked valiantly to finish the book and make it the best it could be.” A spokesman for Twelve declined to say what other publicity the company would be doing for the book, which is being published under embargo.
Kathryn Popoff, vice president for trade books at the Borders Group, said the chain had already anticipated that “True Compass” would be one of its biggest nonfiction books of the fall season. She said Borders increased its order on Wednesday, although she declined to say by how much.

Ms. Popoff said that most stores in the chain had set up tables commemorating Senator Kennedy on Wednesday morning, with titles including “Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy” by Peter S. Canellos and “Ted Kennedy: The Dream That Never Died” by Edward Klein. She said the chain had also put copies of “Profiles in Courage” by President John F. Kennedy onto the tables. “There is a lot of warmth for the entire Kennedy family surrounding this,” Ms. Popoff said. “We think customers are going to see this as an end of an era.”

On Amazon’s Books home page, a link to a list of books about Senator Kennedy was featured prominently on the right-hand side. By Wednesday afternoon, preorders of “True Compass” had risen to No. 34 on Amazon’s print books best-seller list. (On Amazon’s Kindle best-seller list, incidentally, there were no books about Senator Kennedy in the top 100.)

Edward Ash-Milby, biography buyer for Barnes & Noble, said he had not yet decided whether to increase his order of “True Compass” but that “I am prepared for what I think is going to be humongous customer demand.” He added that he fully expected publishers to come up with a deluge of new titles in the coming weeks.

“I’m sure there will be books printed for this occasion, and books that I’m not aware of that I will probably see start popping up,” Mr. Ash-Milby said. “I just sit here and they call me.”

Many publishers anticipated Senator Kennedy’s death this year, publishing multiple titles about his life. Simon & Schuster published “Last Lion” and “Ted Kennedy: Scenes From an Epic Life” by the staff of The Boston Globe this year. David Rosenthal, the Simon & Schuster publisher, said he had no doubt that the company would be going back to press on both books. According to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks about 70 percent of retail sales, “Last Lion” has sold 30,000 copies and The Globe book has sold 1,000 copies.

Harper Perennial, a paperback arm of Harper Collins, issued a new edition with fresh material of “Edward M. Kennedy: A Biography” by Adam Clymer, a former reporter for The New York Times, in June. The book was originally published by William Morrow, now an imprint of HarperCollins, in 1999.

Cal Morgan, editorial director of Harper Perennial, said the publisher had sent out a “modest” number of copies of Mr. Clymer’s book this summer, but after the author appeared on the “Today” show Wednesday morning, new orders were already coming in.

Mr. Morgan said the company was also introducing a new series of political classics for Harper Perennial in November, with “The Making of the President 1960″ by Theodore H. White, and “Kennedy,” the biography of President Kennedy by his adviser Ted Sorensen, as cornerstones of the series.

Scholastic, which published “My Senator and Me,” a picture book written by the senator that had his Portuguese water dog, Splash, was its narrator, said that book was also going back to print. So far, according to Nielsen BookScan, the book has sold 11,000 copies.